Kota Kinabalu: About 30 per cent more or about 10,000 more Korean visitors are expected in Sabah through Asiana Airlines, through its direct flights from Seoul, Korea to the State capital.
For a start, the airline will fly to Sabah from Seoul, Korea, twice weekly departing from Incheon, Seoul to Kota Kinabalu (KK) at 8.40pm on Wednesday and Sunday, and arriving at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) at 1.05am on Thursday and Monday, respectively.
The airline will depart from KKIA at 8.50am on Monday and Thursday using Airbus A321 with a carrying capacity of 166 passengers and 11 seats for crew.
In disclosing this, Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Karim Bujang said the airline forecast to bring nearly 9,000 Korean passengers to the State this year.
"The move by Asiana Airlines has definitely marked another milestone in our tourism history as it will increase the number of Korean tourist arrivals to Sabah.
"Last year, the Ministry recorded over 30,000 Korean tourist arrivals to the State and if we are able to maintain this figure, then we would have an addition of nearly 10,000 Korean passengers this year," he said.
Karim said this during a press conference on Monday in conjunction with Asiana Airlines' scheduled charter flights from Seoul to KK that commenced on April 3.
The airline launched its inaugural flight from Seoul to KK on April 3 departing at 8.40pm on Sunday and arriving at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) at 1.05am on April 4.
It organised a familiarisation trip for 20 delegates comprising nine reporters and 11 tourism players including top management of the airline and few tour agents to Sabah.
Also present was Tourism Malaysia Director for Sabah branch, Iskandar Mirza and the Asiana Airlines top management team. Karim said the Ministry is confident this schedule charter flight will bring Sabah one step further to turning it as a hub for international direct scheduled flights.
"We have 76 direct international flights out of KK and we are positive that the airline will have enough international passengers to make use of this facility depending on how the working relationship will be in the future.
"Also, the airline has given a positive indication that it will actually consider mounting four flights during peak seasons .
"For scheduled charter trips, it will consider flights to Sabah in spring next year," he told.
Karim said the target group for this schedule trips would be honeymooners, families especially on Sunday flights, free independent travellers and incentive groups. He added that other niche markets from Korea would be diving and golfing.
According to him, the Koreans are quality tourists, as they are known to spend well here among Asian tourists.
"Also, there are Korean students here who come to the State to take up the English language and golfing courses here as we believe a few hundred Korean parents have realised how important is to to master the language and decide to send their children here," he said.
Karim said the Koreans also prefer to come here as Sabah is an unspoilt market whereby the traders will not harass or force them to buy their local products.
So far, he said, the Ministry has yet to receive any complaint regarding rude traders or shop assistants from tourists.
Referring to two abandoned resort projects along the new Kinarut - Papar route, he said one has been bought over by a Korean company that would be redesigning the resort to suit Korean features and look.
The other one, he said, is still owned by a local entrepreneur who is planning to resume work in a couple of months.
Karim also encouraged Korean investors to invest in the tourism sector here and construct hotels or resorts as the State's 10,000 rooms are not enough to cater to the more than 100,000 tourists coming to Sabah.
He said the State has less 10 tourist guides who can speak the Korean language. To overcome this shortage, he said, they will train the tourist guides to learn to speak Korean and other foreign languages.
Source: Daily Express 
